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Election Night is over in Texas, but we’re still figuring out exactly what happened yesterday in Williamson County. Some voters waited in line for hours, only to be told they’d have to go to an entirely different polling site to vote. Others made an after-hours trip to cast a ballot, only to find out their vote may not be counted.
Our team of county reporters was covering the most important races in Central Texas. They join us in the studio with their latest reporting.
And the City of Austin is ending a rental assistance program; it’s a byproduct of a trimmed budget. We’ll have more about the help that’s going out for the last time and the future of other assistance programs.
The people of Austin have voted Soundfounder on KUTX Radio Show of the Year! The host of the show, Andrew Brown, is with us today on Austin Signal
Austin Signal is made possible by listeners like you. You can support our work by making a donation at supportthispodcast.org
The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:08] Election night is over in Texas, but we’re still figuring out exactly what happened yesterday in Williamson County. Some voters waited in line for hours, only to be told they’d have to go to an entirely different polling site to vote. Others made an after-hours trip to cast a ballot, only find out that their vote may not be counted. Our team of county reporters was covering the most important races here in Central Texas. They will be joining us live in studio with their latest reporting. That’s coming up on today’s show
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:38] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:43] And the City of Austin is ending a rental assistance program, a by-product of a trimmed budget. More about the help that’s going out for the last time and the future of other assistance programs. That’s up next, right here on Austin Signal. Howdy out there, this is Austin Signal on listener powered public radio, KUT News. It is Wednesday, the fourth day of March. We’re glad you’re here with us. Election night is over, but we’re still figuring things out and some radio hosts are still waking up this afternoon. So bear with us and thank you for tuning in, spending part of the day here with us. We’re going to jump right in. I am here live in the studio with the gang of KUT County reporters. I’m going to go one by one. We have Williamson County reporter Kaylee Hunt. Hi, Kaylee.
Kailey Hunt [00:01:39] Hi Jerry.
Jerry Quijano [00:01:40] KUT’s Travis County reporter Katie McAfee, howdy. Hey. And KUT Hayes County reporter Lee Walden, howdee.
Kailey Hunt [00:01:46] Hi!
Jerry Quijano [00:01:47] All right, Kaylee, I’m going to start with you because Williamson County was part of the national story last night. Sure. Why was that the case?
Kailey Hunt [00:01:55] Yeah, so yesterday’s primary election basically marked the first time in over a decade that Williamson County voters had to cast their ballots at what they call a precinct based polling location. And that’s because the county’s Republican Party decided that they no longer wanted to offer countywide voting and because of state law, the county is Democratic Party had no choice but to follow. And so since people had been so used to countywide polling over the past 10 years or so when they showed up to vote. Yesterday, a lot of folks realized they were at the wrong polling location.
Jerry Quijano [00:02:27] And a lot of folks were surprised. Were you surprised that there was, you know, these kinds of delays, these kind of issues?
Kailey Hunt [00:02:34] You know, I wouldn’t say I was surprised. We knew about this change since January, and the county, I believe they told me they spent about a million dollars just trying to communicate all of these changes to voters. So we knew ahead of time that it was going to happen. And there were some warnings from the county’s Democratic Party Chair, Kim Gilby. She said from the get-go that there were going to be issues. The county’s Republican Party chair told me that, you know, she wished folks would have faith in voters to find the right polling location. She actually today, you now, I finally get a response from her just about the events yesterday. She acknowledged that there was some confusion among voters about polling locations, but reaffirmed that she’s, you know, proud of all the election workers for helping redirect people to the correct places. And, uh, she- she- pretty much squarely blamed that confusion on the Democratic Party.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:38] Okay, well, you were at, in addition to all these precinct-specific issues that were going on, there were also a couple of polling locations in Williamson County that got extended hours all the way until 10 o’clock last night, and in fact, one of the polling locations, you were posted up there the entire day. Where was that at?
Kailey Hunt [00:03:55] That’s right, yeah, I was posted up at the North Star. It’s a 55 plus senior living community in Georgetown, actually just down the road where I live.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:05] Okay, yeah, because you kept mentioning like an apartment complex where the line was making through And was sneaking through, okay, gotcha.
Kailey Hunt [00:04:09] Right, yeah, so Envision just, you know, in apartment complex, they had a central courtyard, and you know as the night went on and the lines just got longer and longer, those folks started to wind in through the courtyard. And so that’s why I was posted up most of the night, just chatting with folks as they waited in line.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:26] Yeah, and what did you hear from the people who were waiting in line?
Kailey Hunt [00:04:29] Well, they were frustrated. I think that’s a nice word to say about it.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:36] That’s a radio-friendly word.
Kailey Hunt [00:04:37] Yes, they were very frustrated but also committed, you know. I asked, you know, there were of course people, several people that just got up and left at some point. They said they, you, know, just couldn’t stay any longer. They had other commitments, children to take care of, jobs to go to. But yeah, a lot of folks were very committed to staying in line. In fact, one of my favorite moments was late at night after the polls had actually closed, initially at 7 p.m. This was before the extension. A couple of folks ordered pizza for everybody and we’re passing around pizza slices in line, so.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:16] Or we had dinner together. Yeah, it’s not an election night without pizza. You mentioned that those polling locations, the hours were extended to 10 o’clock, but then you said that you had to tell some voters that you have to deliver some bad news, basically the voters who were at the end of the line. Tell us more about that.
Kailey Hunt [00:05:33] That’s right. Yeah. So the Texas Voting Rights Project, they filed a lawsuit, they filed the lawsuit that extended those polling hours at those two locations. Now, there’s a new state law that went into effect earlier in September of last year, and it requires that in the event of a lawsuit like this during an election, They, the parties would need to notify the Texas Attorney General’s office one hour prior to the hearing. That failed to happen last night. And so the Texas attorney general’s office filed a motion to pause that and they were successful. So that means people’s votes may or may not count.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:19] Yeah, okay. Well, that’s something that will continue to unfold and I’m sure you will be following it. You did great reporting last night Thank you for being on the show. That’s KUT’s Williamson County reporter, Kaylee Hunt Thank you Kaylee. Gonna move over to KUTs Travis County reporter Katie McAfee Katie, we were watching a couple of precinct races for Travis County Commissioner yesterday. What ended up happening?
Katy McAfee [00:06:40] Yeah, that’s right. We were lucky to get election results in Travis County.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:44] Took a little while, though.
Katy McAfee [00:06:45] It took a little while. Certainly, we were better placed than Williamson County last night. But yeah, I was watching the Precinct 2 and Precinked 4 races. In Precinced 2, which is incumbent Bridget Shay’s seat, she easily won and avoided a runoff. I think she ended the night around with 57% of the vote. Okay. Over in Precint 4, which is the south, southeast portion of Travis County, that race is going to run off. The two candidates who will be going neck and neck in May are George Morales. He is a former Travis County Constable for that precinct, and then Susana Ledesma-Woody. She is a DelValley ISD trustee. The two of them finished the night pretty much neck and back. I think George Morales was ahead by less than 500 votes.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:36] Okay, yeah, so we were watching that one. I believe George Morales came out to an early lead whenever early voting tallies were a first release and then the race grew closer and closer as the night went on. Can you remind us of the date of the runoff when that’s going to take place?
Katy McAfee [00:07:52] Yeah, that’s May 26th. I talked to both Susana Ledesma-Woody and George Morales after the election and they kind of said the same exact thing with wanting to remind people of when this runoff election is because people typically, voter turnout trails off for runoffs. It’s not usually great for primary elections either and then if there’s a runoff, people get voter fatigue, don’t even realize that there is a run off and they’re gonna spend these next couple months. Knocking on doors, still campaigning hard, letting people know that this fight is not over.
Jerry Quijano [00:08:25] Yeah, that’s definitely something to consider, especially we saw such high early voting turnout in Travis County as since the highest since 2008. But yeah, historically, people do not vote in those runoff elections. So that is something we will continue to watch and bring you here on Austin Signal. That’s KUT’s Travis County reporter, Katie McAfee. Katie, thank you. Over to our Hayes County reporter, Lee Walden. Lee, you were watching a Texas district race last night that had a lot of candidates. We were expecting that this might go to a runoff when it ended up happening there.
Leigh Walden [00:08:58] Yeah, District 21 was expected to have a runoff, like you said, there were 12 Republican candidates for the seat, but a former Major League Baseball player, Mark Teshara, managed to come out on top and won’t have to face a run off at all. So he will face Kristen Hook in November, which is the Democratic primary winner, but this is a pretty steady Republican seat, so it’s expected that he will carry it.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:23] Okay a more locally you were watching a race in Hayes County I believe it was a Hayes county judge what happened there.
Leigh Walden [00:09:31] Yeah, the Hays County judge seat. It was a, it was, you know, it was kind of a tight race. The incumbent Ruben Becerra did not manage to meet the 50% threshold. And he will face a runoff in May as well against Michelle Gutierrez Cohen, who is the current Hays county commissioner for precinct two.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:50] Okay, well, we will have more from these great county reporters, and it is our membership drive right now. So I will just say, if you appreciate the reporting they bring to you, help us keep it going. Go to kut.org and hit the donate button. Lee Walden, Katie McAfee, and Kaylee Hunt here with us on Austin Signal. Thank you all for being here. The Texas Senate race has been in the national zeitgeist, and last night it came to a head in the party primaries. The Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat is going to a runoff. Incumbent Senator John Cornyn, who’s held the seat since 2002, will face Attorney General Ken Paxton. Here is The Texas Newsroom’s Blaze Gainey with the details.
Blaise Gainey [00:10:36] The race was expected to go to a runoff, that will be held May 26th, Cornyn gained majority of the vote but not over 50%. But the runoff will likely be different because they typically have a lot less turnout. If that holds true, it will likely favor Paxton, who in his own words has a lot of radicals voting for him.
Ken Paxton [00:10:55] Well, you know, John Cornyn said he was concerned about a bunch of radicals who are going to show up to vote today. It looks like you all showed up.
Blaise Gainey [00:11:04] This runoff could be what Paxton needs to knock Cornyn out of his seat. However, Corny is likely to run a tough campaign smearing Paxton for his 2015 indictment for felony securities fraud and a 2023 impeachment for alleged bribery.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:18] And in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat, Austin’s own James Tallarico, a Texas House representative, claimed victory this morning over Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. The win means he will move on to face the winner of that Republican primary runoff. Let’s throw it back to Blaise Ganey, who was at Tallariko’s election night watch party.
Blaise Gainey [00:11:37] Tallarico took the stage right after midnight to let his supporters know that while every vote must be counted, he was confident in the outcome. That was before he was declared the winner. He used that time to drive home the reason he ran for the seat.
James Talarico [00:11:50] This is a people-powered movement to take on this broken, corrupt political system. This is truly a campaign. And for the people.
Blaise Gainey [00:12:04] Texas Democrats haven’t won a statewide race in over 30 years, but polls show Tallarico could break that losing streak, depending on who he faces in the primary. After he was officially awarded the Democratic spot, he sent out a press release saying, quote, we’re about to take back Texas. I’m Blaise Gainey in Austin.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:25] Okay, now we’re going to step back a bit to election day 2025, when Austin voters voted down Proposition Q, a proposed rise in taxes to bolster the city’s budget. The money from the proposed tax increase was already built into the city budget, and now as the city looks at what to cut, we are beginning to see the ramifications on that as programs get axed. One such program, rental assistance. For more about that, we’re speaking with KUT City Hall reporter Luz Moreno Lozano. Luz, thanks for being here.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:12:53] Hey Jerry, thanks for having me.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:55] So tell us about the Rental Assistance Program, what is it, and how long has it been happening?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:12:59] Yeah, you know, the city started offering this assistance to pay rent kind of around the pandemic. You know, when people started losing their jobs and we were kind of all shut in at home, there started to be this ramifications of like people can’t pay their rent. And so through federal funding, the city was able to provide this program for people in Austin. And it’s, you now, it’s hit some snags along the way. I think they would run out of funding and then more funding would come and they would close the portal. So this has been kind of ongoing since about 2021. And yeah, and since it started, it has provided something like $16 million to over 3,100 households.
Jerry Quijano [00:13:39] OK. And what was the recent announcement regarding this rental assistance program?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:13:44] Yeah, so the city has announced that it will not be offering rental assistance when it is supposed to reopen the portal in April. So there is one last little bit of money that just became available.
Jerry Quijano [00:13:58] Just recently, right? Yeah.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:13:59] Yes, within the last couple of days and it’s available until the 7th, I believe. So just through the end of the week. After that, they won’t have any more money to give. So they’re closing it indefinitely. And so that was something like it was supposed to be $4 million. It was going to go toward rental assistance and eviction prevention. And then when the city council had to cut in the budget that we saw in November, they cut $1 million, which essentially cut off funding for people who need rental assistance.
Jerry Quijano [00:14:28] Well, we talk a lot about numbers when it comes to the money, right? But what do we know about the numbers of people who were applying for this assistance and what kind of options do they have now?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:14:37] Yeah. I heard from El Buen Samaritano this morning, they are the nonprofit that helps distribute the money. I hear from their CEO that they would receive 2,000 applications a month for rental assistance. And with the money that they’re able to give, they would maybe be able to reach between 150 and 180 families. So that’s not even like 10% of the need. Um, so right now they, the city is still offering eviction settlements, meaning that when the resident finally gets to a point where they have to negotiate with their landlord to stay in their home, the city is able to provide some kind of back rent funding for that. And so that’s still part of this, but it isn’t soon enough in the pipeline, right? If people are applying for rental assistance, it’s way up at the top. And by the time, if action settlements coming down, they’ve already missed.
Jerry Quijano [00:15:29] You’ve already been evicted, it sounds like, right?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:15:30] Several months of rent and so this funding does help keep them in the house because the city is negotiating with the landlord directly. So that’ll still be available but I think there’s a lot of concern about like what families do have available now. Rosa Moria was basically telling me like we’re still encouraging people to call us because there are still other options out there and our job is to connect people with those services the best that they can.
Jerry Quijano [00:15:56] This is a result of the city cutting things from the budget for this year. Is it possible that this kind of assistance could come back in the future?
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:16:04] I think it is. I talked to a couple of council members last week who basically told me like, this is the end and we’re going to look at how we can try to put this in another budget. It does mean, you know, with a lot of cuts that we’re seeing and very little wiggle room that the city is going to have to make priorities and they’re going have to make some tough decisions. And so it’s possible could come back. I don’t know if that’ll happen this budget session or next, but it is something that I think council members are aware of and definitely keeping top of mind.
Jerry Quijano [00:16:33] All right, and we will continue to follow that here in the KUT newsroom. We have been speaking with Luz Moreno Lozano. She is KUT’s City Hall reporter. Luz, thanks for coming on the show.
Luz Moreno-Lozano [00:16:43] Thanks, Jerry.
Jerry Quijano [00:16:43] And thank you out there for tuning in. This is listener powered public radio KUT news. We are Austin Signal and we will be back after this break. This is Austin Signal, welcome back. The people of Austin have voted, and Sound Founder on KUTX is the radio show of the year. The host of the show, Sound Foundor himself, is with us today on Austin Signal. Thank you for being here with us. Thank you, for having me, it’s an honor. Well, congratulations on your award. You’ve had a couple of days now to process this Austin Music Award. How you feeling?
Andrew Brown [00:17:24] Feeling good. Still, I mean, honestly, I was very surprised. I’ve been nominated for it a few times, but being nominated and winning are two different things. No electronic music show has ever won this award before, so we’re breaking new ground here.
Jerry Quijano [00:17:43] Yeah, that’s very cool. You know, how long have you been doing the show here at KUTX and how long have you’ve been doing it before, maybe elsewhere?
Andrew Brown [00:17:50] Uh, well, I, um, started at KTX in 2019. Okay. Um, they gave me the 1 a.m. On Saturday night slot.
Jerry Quijano [00:17:59] Oh, ho ho ho!
Andrew Brown [00:18:00] So I think they were definitely seeing like how long of a leash to keep me on at first to see how weird I was going to get. But it worked out and people liked it. And then they bumped me to Wednesday nights and then they extended it to two hours and it’s just been going well ever since. But yeah, I mean, I wanted to get into radio for a long time. I actually, I actually did a handful of segments with Art Levy.
Jerry Quijano [00:18:23] Oh, yeah.
Andrew Brown [00:18:24] I mean, I’m thinking like it was 2012 or something when he was like a student, maybe. So we did, I kind of helped a little project called The Loop that was on KUT. And I was always like, man, I want my own show. How do I do it? And I had thought about it for years and years. And finally, after, you know, really getting it all together, I kinda did a Hail Mary pass and pitched it to KUTX and they just happened to be open to it at that moment and it worked out.
Jerry Quijano [00:18:53] Cool, well shout out to our friend Art Levy, wherever he is out there in the world. We definitely miss you, Art. So tell us a little bit about your show. When does it air and how weird do you get with it?
Andrew Brown [00:19:04] Uh, well, it airs Wednesdays from eight to 10 and, um, I mean, it really, I think the threshold of weirdness is so hard to gage in the age of the internet, like what I think is weird. And then I listened to what an 18 year old is listening to and it’s just completely, it’s such a vast spectrum of like, what is weird that, uh, it’s, it’d be hard to even, I don’t even think of it in that way. I just try to think of things that are. Stimulating and interesting really the the premise of the show is like the full spectrum of creativity in electronic music So that could be anything from on the energy scale It could be Anything from ambient with barely any drums or anything all the way up to like intense glitchy stuff and everything in between so try to really just think of the think of The Electronic Music World as like as a set of tools and an interesting… Uh, you know, a new kind of horizon that’s being explored and pushed constantly.
Jerry Quijano [00:20:05] I believe you told me earlier you’ve been in Austin since 2005, and Austin is known for many scenes, live music scenes. We had the Any Medals, the KUTX, February Artists of the Month, we were talking to them about the Latin music scene. What have you seen, how have you see the Austin electronic scene evolve over the last two decades.
Andrew Brown [00:20:25] Uh, well, I would say when I came here, uh, electronic music was still pretty underground, definitely most of the music industry here seems pretty focused on guitars and stuff still. And, uh little by little that’s been something that’s so interesting is, uh you know, little by a little they’ve, you see, um, kind of pillars of the, music industry, here open up to like, like when KTX first got the and start introducing healthy amount of hip hop. I was like that, okay, they’re trying new stuff. Then they took my show on. It was like, wow, they really, uh, you know, going down new avenues here. So, um, yeah, I’ve seen, I mean, electronic music worldwide has really just grown and become more and more intertwined with other music as it’s become easier to make. I mean, when I was in high school, I graduated in 2003 in San Antonio. When I was a dollar sampler. To begin making electronic music. Now you can just open up your laptop and start experimenting with stuff. So the, I mean, most musicians are electronic musicians at this point in some capacity, like even if it’s just, you know, recording and manipulating sound in one way or another. But so yeah, seeing the electronic music world evolve worldwide and then kind of focusing on that in Austin has really been the main. Mission of everything that I work on, I think.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:00] Well, you’re bringing the Austin electronic scene to the forefront with your show, and so we asked you to bring us a couple of recommendations that we could share here on the show with our listeners. Tell us about the first one you wanted to share with us.
Andrew Brown [00:22:13] Okay, so the first one is from an Austin producer named Brainwave, and it’s actually a track with a Austin musician who experiments with electronic stuff, but he does all kind of… Bayonne, actually. There was a photo of him on the wall in the green room, I just noticed, but yeah. So this is Brainwave the electronic producer collaborating with Bayonne and it is a It’s a song called Bloom that’s really good.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:58] Okay cool, we got that, what else do you have?
Andrew Brown [00:23:01] Uh, another artist that’s really been gaining a lot of traction is flowbomba. He’s, uh, um, a beat maker. He produces, uh what jungle music. If you’re not familiar, you’ve heard the sound probably it’s that really sped up kind of breakbeat type music, but He actually got a release on his music was discovered by a UK jungle legend named Fracture and Fractured ended up putting out his album on vinyl in the UK and then Obama has just been going viral with doing these jungle remixes and he recently just last week did a remix of a Janet Jackson song and she shared it. Oh, OK, cool. Her eight million followers on Instagram. And so I love seeing stuff like that break out of the Austin bubble. I mean, getting your music shared by Janet Jackson, that’s crazy.
Jerry Quijano [00:23:49] All right, cool. Well, we have a little bit of recommendations. Again, the show you can hear it Wednesdays from 8 to 10 before we let you get out of here, you were telling me earlier that, you know, your show used to be played on some other stations, but they were saying, you know, it’s a little too Austin centric for you and you were thinking about, well, maybe should I change it or should I lean into it? Now that you’ve won this Austin Music Award for Best Radio Show, how vindicated are you feeling in that and how proud are you to be that representative, be the first electronic show? How proud are of the scene in general, the electronic music scene here?
Andrew Brown [00:24:22] I feel great. Honestly, I think, yeah, it’s been such a joy in my life to just be a part of the music scene as a whole in Austin, but really cultivating and growing the electronic music scene here. I obviously can’t take the credit for it because it’s a community thing that we’re doing. But getting to bring that to KUTX and present it to the listeners here and not only have that, but to be accepted and to the point where. Uh, you know, winning awards and such, I did not expect it to go, I, I honestly thought I would be met with more resistance, but introducing it to KUTX, but it’s been nothing but love from the, from the KUTx, uh, family. So, um, and, uh yeah, no.
Jerry Quijano [00:25:06] Very cool. Well, my partner, who I’ll be pitching with on all things considered later, Trey Shar, he said, I’m not really a big electronic music fan, but I like Sound Founder. I like listening to his show. And he’s a tough nut to crack. So if you’ve got him, you got everyone. We’ve been speaking with Sound Founders, the winner of the best radio show of the year from the Austin Music Awards. You can tune in and hear Sound Founded Wednesdays. From eight to 10 on KUTX, and you can always stream at kutx.org. Sound founder, thank you very much. Have a great day. Thank you. And thank you out there for tuning in. It has been a busy three days here in Austin, Texas, and we are doing our best to cover it as much as we possibly can. And that means we’re coming back tomorrow, one o’clock, same place, same time. I’m Jerry Quijano, your host. We’ll talk to you then. Have a good day.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
